SCOM Console Install on VMM Server Causes Service Crash

Had a strange one today.

Customer had tried previously to setup the connection between VMM and SCOM but made some mistake somewhere along the line and then uninstalled the SCOM console without removing the connection as they said the console was causing the VMM service to constantly crash.

Having not seen that behaviour before and slightly doubting it somewhat I re-installed the console and sure enough was prevented from accessing the VMM console as the service was crashing.

Just as an added check, I tried running some PowerShell commands to check it wasn't a GUI issue only to be created by error messages complaining that the VMM service wasn't running or accessible.

So I uninstalled the console again which allowed me access back to VMM and running the Get-SCOpsMgrConnection showed me the broken connection.  However attempts to remove via the console or PowerShell were both met by errors telling me I needed the SCOM console installed first in order to manage the connection.  Arh.. slight problem...

After checking everything I could think of (SPN's, SCP's, Service Accounts etc etc) and not finding anything that stood out (Including nothing useful in the event logs) I thought I'd try a timing trick.

So I opened up a SCVMM PowerShell window ready, kicked off the SCOM console install again and then repeatedly spammed Remove-SCOpsMgrConnection -Force and wouldn't you know it after a few messages saying the SCOM console must be installed, just before the install completed the command completed successfully and removed the broken connection.  More to the point the SCOM console installation completed and the VMM service didn't crash.

After recreating the connection everything remained stable, but even though the create connection job ran successfully, the following error was present in the connector details:

“Operations Manager discovery failed with error: “Exception of type ‘Microsoft.VirtualManager.EnterpriseManagement.common.discoverydatainvalidrelationshipsourceexceptionOM10’ was thrown.

This is because the SCOM connection was created with the PRO-Tips enabled but without a SCOM monitoring agent deployed to the VMM Server.
Easily fixable, just untick the PRO and Maintenance Mode connection settings, deploy a SCOM agent to the VMM server and once the agent is installed and reporting, re-enable the options.

System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 - Where's the goodies?

There's plenty of posts starting to come online now regarding Service Pack 1, especially around installation and new features.

If you're looking for that type of content then you might like to start with these links:

• Kevin Greene's covered installing SCOM SP1- Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
• Kevin Greene's also covered Installing Orchestrator SP1 
• Bob Cornelissen has a good post for the DPM 2012 -> SP1 upgrade here
• Marcel Zehner has you covered for the SCSM SP1 upgrade here
• Russ Rimmerman rounds off the links with ConfigMgr upgrade here

However, I thought it might be useful to pull together a listing of the various downloads that would be handy for anyone about to start implementing from scratch or upgrading alike to have to hand.

1. System Center 2012 Service Pack 1
   Unfortunately I can't list a download link for this as it's not available as a simple upgrade Service Pack.  The Service Pack is actually slipstreamed into the System Center 2012 media to allow you to either install fresh or upgrade from it.
   To obtain it you need to head to one of the following sites with your appropriate subscription account:
• Microsoft Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC)
• TechNet
• MSDN
• Microsoft Partner Portal
   
2. New and Updated Orchestrator (SCORCH) Integration Packs (IP's)
   http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=34611
    
   Orchestrator Integration Toolkit
   System Center 2012 SP1 Integration Packs
   Integration Pack for REST
   Exchange User
   Exchange Admin
   FTP
   Active Directory
   Windows Azure
    
   vSphere IP for SP1 (Bit confused as to whether this IP is still Beta or not)
   http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=34604
    
   HP iLO and OA
   http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=34616
    
   HP Service Manager
   http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=34606
    
   HP Operations Manager
   http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=34610
    
   IBM Tivoli Netcool/Omnibus
   http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=34618
    
3. Configuration Manager Component Add-ons and Extensions
   http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36213
    
   11 Essential tools to help you manage, maintain and troubleshoot your ConfigMgr environment, containing:
• Client Spy
• Policy Spy
• Security Configuration Wizard Template
• Send Schedule Tool
• Power Viewer Tool
• Deployment Monitoring Tool
• Run Metering Summarization Tool
• Role-based Administration Modelling and Auditing Tool
• Wakeup Spy
• Content Library Transfer
• Content Ownership Transfer
   
4. ConfigMgr Clients for Additional Operating Systems
   

   http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36212

    

   Service Pack 1 brings with it support for Mac OSX and Linux/Solaris and these are the native clients for those Operating Systems

    
5. Windows Phone 8 Company Portal
   http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36060
    
   Might not seem like something to list with System Center, but you'll need this for side loading applications via ConfigMgr and Intune on Windows Phone 8 with System Center SP1
    
6. Service Manager Authoring Tools
   

   http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36214

    

   Need to extend or customise SCSM forms or add new classes?  Then you need this Authoring Tool.

    
7. Server App-V Remote Sequencer
   

   http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36216

    

   Rather than having to install apps on the same server as your sequencer, you can now use this tool to install software on a remote server and monitor it for sequencing.

    
8. Data Protection Manager (DPM) Azure Online Backup Update
   

   http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2779569

    

   Following very quickly on SP1's heels is this update for DPM that brings the following new or improved features to DPM's ability to utilise the Azure Online Backup Service:

    
• This update improves the performance of Windows Azure Online Backup.
• Windows Azure Online Backup support for a SQL Server data source in System Center 2012 SP1 DPM is available.
• The retention range of Windows Azure Online Backup for System Center 2012 SP1 DPM is increased to support 120 recovery points.
   
9. Update Rollup 1 for System Center 2012 Service Pack 1
   http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2785682
   
   Hot on the heels of Service Pack 1 and before SP1 is even fully Generally Available is Update Rollup 1 bringing a collection of further bug fixes to System Center 2012 with SP1.
    
10. Visio 2010 & SharePoint 2010 Extensions
    http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29268
    
    This Visio 2010 Add-in will enable diagrams to show health states of System Center 2012 - Operations Manager managed objects within the Visio diagram. This live health state functionality is available both when viewing the document in Visio 2010 and in SharePoint 2010.
     
11. Visual Studio Authoring Extensions (VASE)
    http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30169
    
    The System Center 2012 Visual Studio Authoring Extensions—VSAE—is an add-in for Visual Studio 2010 Professional provides Lifecycle Management Tools to support Management Pack Authoring.
     
12. Visio MP Designer (VMPD)
    http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30170
    
    The System Center 2012 Visio MP Designer—VMPD—is an add-in for Visio 2010 Premium that allows you to visually design a System Center Operations Manager Core Monitoring Management Pack.
     
13. System Center 2012 SP1 Configuration Manager Package Conversion Manager 2.0
    http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=34605
    
    Package Conversion Manager (PCM) is a feature pack download that lets you to convert ConfigMgr 2007 packages into System Center 2012 SP1 Configuration Manager applications.
     
14. System Center Data Protection Manager CSV Serialization Tool
    http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36524
    
    The CSV XML merging tool makes CSV VM backup serialization easier for Windows 2008R2 CSV Cluster environment.
     
15. Global Service Monitor (GSM) Management Packs
    http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36422
    
    These management packs enable the System Center Global Service Monitor functionality within System Center Operations Manager 2012 SP1
     
16. System Center 2012 Service Manager Component Add-ons and Extensions

    http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36497

    Addons for Service Manager including:

    IT Governance Risk and Compliance (GRC) Process Management Pack

    System Center Cloud Services Process Pack - coming soon

System Center 2012 SP1 Setup Software Prerequisites

Since I'm updating my lab environment (more like a wipe and reload) to Service Pack 1 for System Center 2012 I thought I'd just take the time quickly (mainly for my own reference) to document the prerequisites needed for deploying the various components.

This is all based on installing it on Windows Server 2012 as the Server OS and SQL Server 2012 in a clustered, named instance setup.

This post is focused on software pre-reqs, not design or account pre-reqs.  See my other post here about service accounts and System Center 2012.  This post is also not a step by step install guide.


Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM)
Very simple for SCVMM, before the SCVMM installation install the Windows ADK and only choose:

• Deployment Tools
• Windows Preinstallation environment (Windows PE)

Alternatively you can use the following PowerShell snippet to automate the download and install of the ADK components if your server has Internet access:

$dwnld = "C:\Downloads"
if (!(Test-Path -path $dwnld))
 {
 New-Item $dwnld -type directory
 }
$object = New-Object Net.WebClient
$ADKurl = 'http://download.microsoft.com/download/9/9/F/99F5E440-5EB5-4952-9935-B99662C3DF70/adk/adksetup.exe'
$object.DownloadFile($ADKurl, "$dwnld\adksetup.exe")
Start-Process -FilePath "$dwnld\adksetup.exe" -Wait -ArgumentList "/quiet /features OptionId.DeploymentTools OptionId.WindowsPreinstallationEnvironment"

After that there is nothing extra required.



Configuration Manager (ConfigMgr)
Slight bug/feature in Server 2012 when it comes to installing .NET Framework 3.5 where you'll need the install media to get it installed using the following command:
N.B. This command line assumes you have the source media in the D drive.

dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFX3 /all /Source:d:\sources\sxs /LimitAccess


To install all other features via PowerShell:

Get-Module ServerManager

Install-WindowsFeature Web-Windows-Auth,Web-ISAPI-Ext,Web-Metabase,Web-WMI,BITS,RDC, NET-Framework-Features,Web-Asp-Net,Web-Asp-Net45,NET-HTTP-Activation, NET-Non-HTTP-Activ,UpdateServices-Services,UpdateServices-RSAT


Also required is the Windows ADK and only choose:

• Deployment Tools
• Windows Preinstallation environment (Windows PE)
• User State Migration Tool (USMT)

Alternatively you can use the following PowerShell snippet to automate the download and install of the ADK components if your server has Internet access:

$dwnld = "C:\Downloads"
if (!(Test-Path -path $dwnld))
 {
 New-Item $dwnld -type directory
 }
$object = New-Object Net.WebClient
$ADKurl = 'http://download.microsoft.com/download/9/9/F/99F5E440-5EB5-4952-9935-B99662C3DF70/adk/adksetup.exe'
$object.DownloadFile($ADKurl, "$dwnld\adksetup.exe")
Start-Process -FilePath "$dwnld\adksetup.exe" -Wait -ArgumentList "/quiet /features OptionId.DeploymentTools OptionId.WindowsPreinstallationEnvironment OptionId.UserStateMigrationTool"

ConfigMgr has more pre-reqs (Silverlight 5 etc) but these should be remediated by the ConfigMgr installer automatically.

Service Manager (SCSM)
For all SCSM roles we need to use dism to add .Net 3.5 before we can even start the installer

dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFX3 /all /Source:d:\sources\sxs /LimitAccess

Management Server & Data Warehouse
SQL Analysis Management Objects (AMO) from here
SQL Native Client from here N.B As stated earlier this is the SQL 2012 Native Client, you'll need the version matching your SQL environment.

Both of these pre-reqs are part of the SQL 2012 Feature Pack

Report Viewer 2008 SP1 is also required, but not on the Data Warehouse.

If the server you are installing SCSM on has internet access then you could use this Powershell snippet to download and install the Prerequisites automatically.

$dwnld = "C:\Downloads"
if (!(Test-Path -path $dwnld))
 {
 New-Item $dwnld -type directory
 }
$object = New-Object Net.WebClient
$AMOurl = 'http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=239666&clcid=0x409'
$SNCurl = 'http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=239648&clcid=0x409'
$RPTurl = 'http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/4/F/04F99ADD-9E02-4C40-838E-76A95BCEFB8B/ReportViewer.exe'
$object.DownloadFile($AMOurl, "$dwnld\SQL2012AMO.msi")
$object.DownloadFile($SNCurl, "$dwnld\SQL2012NCli.msi")
$object.DownloadFile($RPTurl, "$dwnld\ReportViewer.exe")
Start-Process -FilePath msiexec -ArgumentList /i, "$dwnld\SQL2012AMO.msi", /qn -Wait
Start-Process -FilePath msiexec -ArgumentList /i, "$dwnld\SQL2012NCli.msi", /qn, IACCEPTSQLNCLILICENSETERMS=YES -Wait
Start-Process -FilePath "$dwnld\ReportViewer.exe" -ArgumentList /q -Wait



Orchestrator (SCORCH)
Again, we need to use dism to add .Net 3.5 before we can even start the installer

dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFX3 /all /Source:d:\sources\sxs /LimitAccess

The only other pre-req is the IIS role, but if this isn't installed the SCORCH setup will do this for you anyway.

However, if you'd like to prep the server manually, use the following PowerShell command:

Add-WindowsFeature Web-Server,Web-Log-Libraries,Web-Request-Monitor,Web-Http-Tracing,Web-Digest-Auth,Web-Windows-Auth,Web-Net-Ext,Web-Asp-Net,Web-CGI,Web-Mgmt-Tools,NET-WCF-HTTP-Activation45,NET-WCF-MSMQ-Activation45,NET-WCF-Pipe-Activation45,NET-WCF-TCP-Activation45,MSMQ,RDC,WAS



Operations Manager (SCOM)

Operations Console
Microsoft Report Viewer 2010 Redistributable Package is required on any device where the console is to be installed and that is usually at least one management server.

The following PowerShell script will download and install it for you.

$dwnld = "C:\Downloads"
if (!(Test-Path -path $dwnld))
 {
 New-Item $dwnld -type directory
 }
$object = New-Object Net.WebClient
$RPTurl = 'http://download.microsoft.com/download/E/A/1/EA1BF9E8-D164-4354-8959-F96843DD8F46/ReportViewer.exe'
$object.DownloadFile($RPTurl, "$dwnld\ReportViewer.exe")
Start-Process -FilePath "$dwnld\ReportViewer.exe" -ArgumentList /q -Wait


Web Console
The SP1 Operations Manager 2012 web console requires the some IIS Server Features to be enabled.

The following PowerShell line will install and enable the required features:

Add-WindowsFeature Web-Server,Web-Request-Monitor,Web-Windows-Auth,Web-Asp-Net,Web-CGI,Web-Mgmt-Tools,NET-WCF-HTTP-Activation45,Web-Metabase

If for some reason the pre-req checker is complaining about "Enable the ISAPI and CGI restrictions in IIS for ASP.NET 4.x" then try a reboot first but if it still complains then try the following command and then another reboot.  It says the command doesn't work in Server 2012/IIS8 but it worked for me after a reboot.
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\aspnet_regiis.exe -enable -r



App Controller
The following PowerShell line will install and enable the required features:

Add-WindowsFeature NET-Framework-Features,NET-Framework-Core,Web-Mgmt-Console,Web-Static-Content,Web-Default-Doc,Web-Http-Errors,Web-Http-Logging,Web-Request-Monitor,Web-Http-Tracing,Web-Stat-Compression,Web-Filtering,Web-Basic-Auth,Web-Windows-Auth,Web-ISAPI-Filter,Web-ISAPI-Ext,Web-Net-Ext,Web-Asp-Net45


General
If you need to check if a server has some of the features installed already, use this PowerShell line:

Get-WindowsFeature | where {$_.Installed -eq "True"} | ft DisplayName, Name, Installed

System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 RTM & Download

There's been bits of information floating around the internet over the last few days that System Center 2012 SP1 had gone RTM.

Like everything, people were sceptical as there was no official announcement, only a blog post on the DPM forums.

However, it had gone RTM internally and today saw it released to those with TechNet and MSDN subscriptions.

 

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/subscriptions/securedownloads/#ProductFamilyId=463

For those without TechNet or MSDN, chances are you will still have to wait another week or so until about the 3rd of January (rumoured)

Time to go update the lab!

Print Server Management Pack - Finally Updated!

Microsoft released the other day an update for the Print Server management pack, finally!

I've moaned about Microsoft's attitude towards this management pack for some time.
http://systemscentre.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/server-2008-r2-print-services.html

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/operationsmanagermgmtpacks/thread/634c02e8-30a8-4f6e-a26a-c2bfacd526cb

The quick fix MP for 2008 R2 that Myself and Rob Ryan (He did most of the work...) is no longer available as his blog is currently down.  However, Kevin Holman created a better one that was more preferable to use anyway. http://blogs.technet.com/b/kevinholman/archive/2010/11/10/how-to-monitor-print-services-on-server-2008-r2.aspx


But back to the here and now... MS have an updated MP available for Microsoft Print Servers.

From the MP Documentation it appears that not only is Server 2012 now supported, but finally 2008 R2 is as well.

Going through the Import MP Wizard and searching the catalogue will at present not get you access to the new Print MP as it doesn't yet seem to be updated.

 

That's not always a bad thing however as I would always recommend downloading the MP manually otherwise you may miss the associated MP Guide document.  As always with SCOM MP's, RTFM first before import!!

 

*Update 11/12/12 - Apparently the catalogue has now been updated, thanks for the heads up Daniel Savage*

*Update #2 11/12/12 - Confirmed, the catalogue has now been updated*

The MP can also be downloaded from here:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=3290

Surprisingly, this MP is only listed as an Operations Manager 2007 R2 MP.

This is slightly strange with them adding Print Server monitoring on Server 2012 since monitoring Server 2012 with SCOM 2007 R2 isn't supported natively, well not without running 2012 Agents reporting back to your 2007 R2 Management Servers.
http://thoughtsonopsmgr.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/scom-r2-windows-server-2012-support.html


I've downloaded it anyway to test with SCOM 2012 and on first try of importing, I'm presented with an error that a dependant MP for the Print Server 2003 MP is missing.

This is fine though, it's only because I've not got any of the Windows 2003 MP's in my environment, after all who still uses Server 2003?  (I am joking before anyone comments!)

Import works fine on SCOM 2012.

 

After import there's plenty of Discoveries, Monitors and Rules...

Notice there's no reference to 2008 R2?

Well in the 2008 Print Server MP the discovery ran this WMI query:

SELECT Name FROM Win32_ServerFeature WHERE Name = "Print Services"

Kevin Holman's addendum MP changed this to this following query which then discovered 2008 R2 print services roles:

SELECT Name FROM Win32_ServerFeature WHERE Name = "Print Services" OR Name = "Print and Document Services"

Well the discovery for 2008 R2 is contained within the 2008 MP and now looks like this:

SELECT Name FROM Win32_ServerFeature WHERE ID = 7

Easy little change and simpler than listing specific names as it covers both 2008 & 2008 R2 regardless of the specific name.

This link shows all Win32_ServerFeature ID's: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/windows/desktop/cc280268(v=vs.85).aspx

The same WMI query is also used in the 2012 MP which should mean if any name changes are made in an R2 release of 2012 the MP should carry on working.

I was going to run a difference compare against the old and the new MP, but I seem to have misplaced my old copy of the MP.  As soon as I can get my hands on one I'll run one and update the post.

*Update 11/12/12*
I'll also retract my previous comment (below) as it was rather harsh and actually untrue.  Now that I've done more that skim the MP guide, it does contain numerous references to 2008 R2 /facepalm.
So much for taking my own RTFM advice...

As mentioned by Daniel Savage in the comments, the MP Guide includes all rules etc stored within the MP for reference.

In short, it appears at first glance to run ok on SCOM 2012, but requires more testing.  I think it's probably just laziness on Microsoft's part that they couldn't be bothered to re-write the MP guide completely and just chose to add references to Server 2012 only rather than go back and add 2008 R2, which to be honest wouldn't add much value as it's 99.9% the same monitoring as plain 2008.

Extended Virtual Machine Discovery Management Pack

Infront released a new management pack, a while ago, for FREE, to the community via System Center Central.

http://www.systemcentercentral.com/tabid/143/indexid/94055/default.aspx?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+systemcentercentral%2Fblogs+%28Blogs+at+System+Center+Central%29

This management pack will give you a deeper insight into your virtual machines including recognising which platform (Hyper-V, VMware & Citrix), which hosts they're located on, if VM Tools are installed and the version.

(footnote. I actually wrote this post the day they released it, but forgot to post it /facepalm)

SCOM Data Access Service Fails to Start

I was speaking to an old colleague the other day who is in the middle of migrating his production Operations Manager 2007 R2 environment to a nice new shiny 2012 setup.

Things were initially going well but he explained that he ran into a rather strange issue just after migrating the first batch of agents across to just talk to his live 2012 infrastructure, what made it stranger was these had been talking to his test infrastructure (dual homed) fine for quite a while.

When he moved them across, shortly after, the System Center Data Access service stopped and refused to start.

No matter what he tried it wouldn't work and he had to fall back to restoring a backup.

This left him a little hesitant about the stability of his live environment and whether something wasn't quite right underneath it all somewhere, but it seemed to be fine after the restore so he thought he'd see how it went.

Well the same problem reared it's ugly head again the other day so he did some more digging.

Eventually he stumbled across this post from Travis Wright explaining an issue seen in Service Manager.
http://blogs.technet.com/b/servicemanager/archive/2011/10/04/system-center-data-access-service-start-up-failure-due-to-sql-configuration-change.aspx

Since Service Manager and Operations Manager share the same code base and the problem described is essentially a SQL problem anyway he took a look to see if it was indeed the same issue affecting him, turns out it was!

It finally turned out to be something one of the developers were doing with custom reports and scheduling that was adding a local SQL account to the security roles as DBOwner (Dev to be taken outside and shot...)

So in summary, if you're using SCOM and your System Center Data Access Service refuses to start and you're seeing event log errors such as:

• 26325 Authorization store exception
• 26339 Exception thrown while initializing the service container
• 26380 Unhandled Exception

then take a look at the Service Manager blog link above and check your SQL security logins to see if something/someone is flipping the Authentication mode to Mixed-Mode.

Good find Rob, now get your blog back online and start sharing things like this again ;)

Operations Manager - New Authoring Tools

Back at MMS2012 Microsoft announced they would be releasing two new authoring tools for Operations Manager (SCOM).

Well after a little delay, they've now been released.

The Visio Management Pack Designer can be found here:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30170

The Visual Studio Authoring Extensions can be found here:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30169

They're a little self explanatory, but basically the Visio MP Designer allows you to graphically design a management pack within Visio, using built in best practice methods to fairly quickly generate a management pack.

Likewise the Visual Studio extensions add class types and discovery rules etc into Visual Studio.
I'm certainly not a developer and it will be a while before I get chance to test this, but Michel Kamp has written an excellent blog post showing  prelease version here:
http://michelkamp.wordpress.com/2012/02/19/scom-author-meets-the-real-vs-authoring-extensions/

Technet Wiki's:
VS Extensions: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/5236.visual-studio-authoring-extensions-for-system-center-2012-operations-manager-en-us.aspx

Visio MP Designer: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/5235.visio-management-pack-designer-for-system-center-2012-operations-manager-en-us.aspx


*Images linked from the Microsoft TechNet Wiki's*

System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 CTP2 - What's New?

So Service Pack 1 CTP2 has just been released for download:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30133

With the Technical Documentation here:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30134

I don't know if it's an oversight or not, but there is currently no technical doc for ConfigMgr....

From scanning the documents quick, here's a high level new feature list:

App Controller

• Upload a virtual hard disk or image to Windows Azure from a VMM library or network share
• Add a virtual machine to a deployed service in Windows Azure
• Start, stop, and connect to virtual machines in Windows Azure
• Migrate a virtual machine from VMM to Windows Azure
• Deploy a virtual machine in Windows Azure to create hosted service
• Add a Service Provider Framework (SPF) hosting provider connection

Orchestrator

• In System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 (SP1), Windows Server 2012 and SQL Server 2012 are both supported.
• Additional support for Integration Packs, including 3rd party
• Manage VMM self-service User Roles
• Manage multiple VMM ‘stamps’ (scale units), aggregate results from multiple stamps
• Integration with App Controller to consume Hosted clouds

Virtual Machine Manager

• Network Virtualization
• VHDX Support
• SMB 3.0 File Shares
• Live Migration Enhancements
• Storage enhancements
• Provision a Physical Computer as a Hyper-V Host - Enhancements
• Support for VMM console add-ins

Service Manager

• SQL Server 2012 Support
• New Charge Back Feature

Operations Manager

• New APM Monitoring Capabilities (WCF, MVC and .NET NT services)
• New MP and support for Windows Server 2012 and IIS 8
• Azure SDK support

Configuration Manager

• Support for Windows 8
• Support for Mac OS clients
• Support for Linux and Unix servers

Data Protection Manager

• Improved backup performance of Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V over CSV 2.0 deployments
• Protect Hyper-V over remote SMB share
• Protect Windows 8 deduplicated volumes
• Support for Live Migration (Uninterupted Protection)
• Use SQL Server 2012 to host DPM database

Server App-V

• Support for applications that create scheduled tasks during packaging
• Create virtual application packages from applications installed remotely on native server

Building the TESG Private Cloud Customer Experience Centre - Part 1

Every year my employer holds an event for customers (and potential new customers) to show case what we do and give customers a chance to meet our partner vendors.

This year, nicely coinciding with just after the System Center 2012 release, I landed the brilliant job of setting up something to demonstrate our System Center and Desktop expertise.

And so the concept of the Private Cloud and Optimised Desktop Customer Experience Centre was born.

The goal?

1. To showcase the full System Center 2012 suite
2. To showcase the interactions of each component and how they drive efficiencies
3. To showcase an elastic and easily scalable datacentre that can flex into the Public Cloud
4. To showcase the dynamic desktop with OS, Data, User and Application layers abstracted
5. To showcase BYOD and specifically desktop/application access on tablet devices

Over a couple of blog posts I'll aim to share some of the planning, thoughts and tips & tricks that went into building it.
What I'll not be doing is guides on how to install the different components as there are plenty of them out there, but I will post links to some relevant good guides.

My original test lab was made up of a couple of HP Proliant DL380 G7's with some shared space pinched off the corporate SAN, but as this was going to need to host a lot more and it would need to be "slightly" portable for attending events like the T360 it was time to purchase some upgrades.

1. More memory.  Upgrade from 64Gb per host to 128Gb
2. Dedicated Storage.  iSCSI SAN that would also allow me to show some of the VMM storage management features (N.B. More details on this later, plus some pitfalls to watch out for!)
3. Dedicated Switches.  To show SCOM network management & keep the environment self contained.
4. More NIC's.  The original environment only had 4 onboard NICs, not good enough.
5. Flight case to rack it all in to make it portable (kind of!)

Now that might sound slightly overkill for a test/demo environment.  However, I have a laptop which is quite capable of showing 2-3 of the System Center products at the same time, but this Customer Experience Center had to host the following:

• Active Directory
• Virtual Machine Manager
• Operations Manager
• Service Manager
• Configuration Manager
• Data Protection Manager
• Orchestrator
• App Controller
• SQL 2008 R2 Server
• SharePoint Enterprise Server
• Exchange
• Lync
• ForeFront UAG
• ForeFront TMG
• File Servers
• XenDesktop Mgt Server
• XenDesktop VDI Desktops
• XenApp Mgt Server
• XenApp App Servers
• Remote Desktop Session Hosts
• Remote Desktop Broker/Gateway/Licensing
• RDS/Hyper-V VDI Desktops
• Dedicated Win 7 Admin Workstations
• Citrix NetScaler VM Appliance
• App-V Sequencer Workstations

When you consider that all of this needs to be up and running at the same time, my laptop just wasn't going to cope!

So far this has spread out across 34 VM's and there's still more to come...

This is a quick example diagram that I drew up to show the Hyper-V layout

Once all the hardware components were installed and racked then Hyper-V was the first thing to tackle and all I can say is thank god for Aidan Finn and his blog: http://www.aidanfinn.com/

Lots of useful posts, for example: http://www.aidanfinn.com/?p=10311

I'm going to leave the rest for the next post, but I just want to mention something that came to light when I installed the first System Center component, Virtual Machine Manager.

This is a logical first place to start if you've got the chance to build a private cloud from scratch like I have as you can implement Service Templates for deploying your VM's to help structure the environment and provide servicing and scale out options.

However, I hit a problem almost straight away, I struggled to get it to see my storage provider.

Originally I was ordering a Dell Equalogic iSCSI SAN for the environment, but due to certain disks not being available and increased costs for alternatives I was suggested to look at a DotHill AssuredSAN 2332.

The first thing I did was ask/check it supported SMI-S protocol, which it did as this is what VMM requires for the new features.
However when trying to set it up in VMM, it soon came to light that it only supported SMI-S 1.3 whereas VMM requires version 1.5.

So lesson learnt, make sure that when checking specifications, especially SAN's that you check in detail, right down to the version number!

There is a useful table (I found this afterwards!) that details the supported arrays:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg610600.aspx

Part 1 - Building the TESG Private Cloud Customer Experience Centre

Part 2 - Service Accounts & Permissions

Part 3 - Installation Guide Links
Part 4 - Partner Solutions & Extensions

Updated Update Rollup 1 for System Center 2012

No sooner do I finish pushing out my SCOM agents do I then see that Microsoft have released Update Rollup 1 for Operations Manager.

Normally I'd be quite happy and plod along with getting the update installed, but hang on a second, this update looks very familiar.

The article that I saw referenced in the update announcement is KB2686249, the same one that I blogged about here a couple of weeks ago.

In fact, it is the very same update, just with Operations Manager 2012 added, along with the updated Virtual Machine Manager Management Packs.

Now I'm not one to moan (yeah, I'm not going to get away with that statement!) but updating an update without increasing the rollup/update number isn't exactly the best way to go about it in my opinion.  Does this mean when the ConfigMgr update is ready we'll see yet another addition to the Update Rollup 1 package but with no name change?

The only reason this probably half bothers me is that I'm in the middle of setting up my new testlab/customer experience center for work and having just updated VMM and App controller by using Windows Update for a change rather than pulling the file down manually and I'm now a bit perplexed as Windows Update is unable to find the SCOM update for the console that is installed on my VMM server (not that it finds it for the SCOM management server either via WU).

And then to make matters worse, there's a "known issue" with the update:

No updates items appeared in Control Panel ARP after installing Update Rollup 1 (UR1). After installing UR1 on server and all roles (except Agent and Gateway), no update item appears in Control Panel ARP list.

The version number of the console does not change after installing Update Rollup 1 in the UI. After installing Update Rollup 1 ,the version number of the console is still 7.0.8560.0 in the UI

Why is this a problem?  Well if you were planning to distribute the console update via ConfigMgr then you're going to have to fall back to file version checking for targeting and it makes it just that tad harder for verification checking when you can't just simply ask a user to check their console version by check "help about"

I'm not going to blog about the whole installation order/methodology as Kevin Green has already written this up nicely here:
http://kevingreeneitblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/scom-2012-deploying-cumulative-update.html

One thing he doesn't mention though is that after installing the Web Console fix, the following line requires adding to the web.config file.

From the KB Article:

Web console fixes will work after adding the following line to the %windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v2.0.50727\CONFIG\web.config file:

<machineKey validationKey="AutoGenerate,IsolateApps"
decryptionKey="AutoGenerate,IsolateApps" validation="3DES" decryption="3DES"/>

The line should be added under <system.web>, as described in the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

911722 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/911722/ ) You may receive an error message when you access ASP.NET Web pages that have ViewState enabled after you upgrade from ASP.NET 1.1 to ASP.NET 2.0

 

All in all, there are 17 core updates to SCOM, 3 for Unix/Linux Monitoring and a lovely new feature - Oracle Solaris 11 (x86 & SPARC) support included in this updated update so it's definitely one to go and install.

The VMM & App Controller update parts are available either through Windows Update or from here:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29679

The Operations Manager update packages can be downloaded from here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c593536c-94f3-4c71-b963-5ab3b7fc05e1

MMS 2012 - Wrap up

Well I'm back from this years Microsoft Management Summit and just about recovered.

I thought I'd write a quick post to cover some of the useful information that I've seen filtering through since MMS 2012 and also to post some useful links that I didn't get chance to while balancing my tablet on my knee during sessions.

Johan Arwidmark has released a brilliant "Hydration Kit" to help deploy a complete ConfigMgr 2012 infrastructure, fully automated, for a lab/test environment.
http://www.deploymentresearch.com/Blog/tabid/62/EntryId/57/The-Hydration-Kit-for-ConfigMgr-2012-RTM-is-available-for-download.aspx

The sessions from MMS 2012 can be watched on-demand from the http://www.mms-2012.com/digitalmms site.  The individual slide decks are also available from here.

If you don't want to trawl through so many sessions grabbing the slide decks, you can download the entire stack from the myITforum site.

Similarly, with the video sessions, you can find a nifty little PowerShell script here on the scomfaq site that will allow you to download all the sessions for offline viewing, or supply your own text list of session ID's if you don't want them all.  Just be careful, there's around 26Gb of videos available to download!

Various System Center solution accelerators, add-ins and resource tools have been released:
Service Manager 2012 Exchange Connector 3.0
Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2012
Security Compliance Manager 2.5
Many other Addons that I previously listed

Keynote Day 1 saw the "official" announcement that System Center 2012 was RTM and GA (General Availability) which was no huge surprise (For those customers that took my bet that April 17th was the release date I'll collect my winnings later!)
Another non-surprise was the announcement that Windows Server "8" was officially renamed to Windows Server 2012 (shortly followed with the Windows client team announcing that Windows "8" will be officially called Windows 8).

Keynote Day 2 was more client focused, but the main announcement was that Intune will be receiving a big feature update in the next release with the ability to manage iOS and Android devices, not just through Exchange ActiveSync policies, but by being able to allow applications to be installed from a centrally controllable "approved" list.  Details are still sketchy and the demo showed a web page being used on iOS, but fingers crossed this will change to being an app.

Microsoft's Eric Main posted more information on the changes. Here's an excerpt with some additional details:
"The next release of Windows Intune will integrate with Windows Server Active Directory and Microsoft Exchange Server, allowing IT to manage the many devices brought into the workplace, even if they’re not owned by the organization. IT will also be able to use Windows Intune to set security policies for mobile devices and enforce password protection, encryption and even kick off a remote wipe if a device is compromised. Windows Intune’s mobile device management will support any device with Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync capabilities, including Windows Phone, iOS and Android."


I took both the new Private Cloud exams while I was out there;
70-246 - Monitoring and Operating a Private Cloud
70-247 - Configuring and Deploying a Private Cloud

For those of you thinking about taking these exams and don't work daily with ALL of the System Center 2012 products, I'd recommend you look at attending the classroom based courses:

Learning Plans and Classroom Training
10750AB: Beta: Monitoring and Operating a Private Cloud with System Center 2012 (5 Days)
10751A: Configuring and Deploying a Private Cloud with System Center 2012 (5 Days)

Unfortunately I have to wait until June time to find out my results, fingers crossed that I passed!


Much to the disappointment of my wife who was hoping to come to Las Vegas with me next year and a colleague who also had his sights set on Vegas, the announcement was made that MMS 2013 will be held in New Orleans in June next year.  Rumours are already circulating that this may well mean a combining of both MMS & TechEd since MMS is usually held in April/May and TechEd in May/June time.  Since both events usually have the same set of Microsoft staff attending a fair portion of the sessions it would certainly make sense.


Finally, while I did the usual sweep of the vendor stalls looking for swag, I personally thought it was rather light on goodies.  I did however find swag gold from BDNA.  For those people that don't know me, I tend to drink a lot of Relentless, so being a geek these were the highlight of the swag gathering!

Visio Management Pack Designer for Operations Manager

I'm just sat in a session at MMS 2012 where they're presenting about the new Management Pack designer for Operations Manager (2007 & 2012).

While it's not a complete replacement for the authoring console\Visual Studio\XML editing what it is is a major benefit for those new to or need quick development of management packs without major in-depth knowledge but can create a pack that is fully best practices based and in a very visual way through dragging and dropping.

More information can be found here:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/5235.visio-management-pack-designer-for-system-center-2012-operations-manager-en-us.aspx

SCOM DMZ/Workgroup Agent Deployment Script(s)

I've been working for a customer tidying up their System Center installation this week and as part of that I was showing them how to deploy OpsMgr agents to their DMZ.

Their DMZ consists of workgroup based servers, which means each one needed certificates generating, installing and associating in order to work.

I was bored after doing the first one as it was so tedious so I took the time to write a couple of scripts to automate the process as much as possible.

So, script #1:
1.DMZAgentInstall.cmd
Running this script on the DMZ server will...

1. Prompt for the name to be used for the certificate (preferably FQDN, but make sure it matches the full computer name)
2. Create the certificate request file
3. Upload the certificate request file to a folder on the RMS
4. Pause for the "2.GenerateCertificate.cmd" script to be run on a server/workstation on the same domain as the certificate server
5. Imports the Root CA certificate chain
6. Imports the SCOM Agent Certificate
7. Copies the agent install files locally (Doesn't have to be done but did in this environment due to IE7 stopping files being executed from a remote share)
8. Installs the agent
9. Installs the CU5 updates
10. Runs MOMCertImport to associate the certificate to the Health Service
11. Restarts the Health Service

So, script #2:
2.CreateCertificate.cmd
This script must be run on a domain computer than has access to the issuing certificate server and run using an account that has the auto enrolment rights on the certificate.

1. Prompts for the full server name used during the 1.DMZAgentInstall.cmd script
2. Submits the certificate request file to the certificate server
3. Retrieves the certificate and stores it ready for import

And there you have it, a quick two step process to setup a DMZ/Workgroup client easily.

Now a couple of things:

1. I know this would have been better in PowerShell before someone says it, but the customer had mainly Windows 2003 Servers, without PowerShell installed.
2. If you have access to the certificate server from the DMZ, you could probably streamline this to one script, but this customer didn't.
3. This was a quick and dirty throw together, feel free to improve and post back the results ;)

Things that need changing before running the scripts:
Rename the downloaded files from .txt to .cmd
Share the agent management folder on the RMS
Create a Certs folder in the agent management folder on the RMS
Change the following highlighted variables to reflect your environment
The script assumes you're using a PKI environment with the SCOM Certificate Template setup ready

** Certificate Server Variables **
SET CERTPATH=\\<<SERVERNAME>>\<<SHARENAME>>\Certs
SET CATEMPLATE=<<SCOMGatewayAuthenticationTemplateName>>
SET CAFQDN=<<SERVERFQDN>>
SET CASERVER=<<CASERVER>>

** OpsMgr Agent Variables **
SET SOURCEFILES=\\<<SERVERNAME>>\<<SHARENAME>>
SET MGTGRP=<<SCOMMGTGRP>>
SET MGTSVRDNS=<<SERVERFQDN>>
SET SECPORT=5723

Scripts to Download:

SCOM Monitoring with Windows Phone 7

Microsoft have released a case study about a custom solution they developed to provide access to their Operations Manager infrastructure from a Windows Phone 7 app.

Microsoft IT designed some SQL APIs to expose the data in SCOM and a data synchronisation service that used the APIs to push the data into an Azure hosted service.

They then developed an Azure cloud-based middle tier service that receives the data and pushes it out to a Windows Phone 7 app.

Microsoft IT then developed a new Windows Phone app called ECIT Monitor that receives the Operations Manager system status information in near real time from the middle tier over a secure network connection, including the use of live tiles to display counts of alerts etc.

There is also mention in the case study of further enhancements for future revisions including graphically displaying incident management metrics and trends, and new drill-down screens that will provide more detailed information about a selected platform or application.

Does this mean maybe we'll see Service Manager integration?

I can only hope that this doesn't remain an internal project.  Making this service an additional Software Assurance benefit like System Center Advisor would make this a really compelling argument for SA on either Windows or System Center 2012!

Case study can be found here:
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=28944

System Center 2012 Licensing Changes - Knowledge Cast

After the recent announcement last week by Microsoft on the changes being made to the license models for System Center ready for the launch of the 2012 wave, I'd like to share an invitation to a knowledge cast that I will be presenting on these changes.

http://www.trustmarquesolutions.com/news/system-center-2012-licensing-changes-webinar/

These significant changes include:

• Streamlining the complexity of licensing System Center
• The discontinuation of the Enterprise workload licenses
• The removal of Management Server Licenses
• License grants & transition paths available for existing Software Assurance customers

The Knowledge Cast will cover:

• Review of the licensing changes
• What these changes will mean to your business
• The key timelines for pricing & product changes
• The increased benefits of the System Center 2012 models

*Update- due to demand, we've added an additional session on Thursday morning*
There are four sessions that I'll be presenting on, across two days:
Tuesday January 24th 2012
11:00 – 12:00
14:00 – 15:00
Thursday January 26th
11:00 – 12:00
14:00 – 15:00

I know it's short notice, but these changes were only announced last week and some of the changes have important impact if not acted on quickly.

Places are limited, and aimed at UK based organisations, so booking soon is recommended:
http://www.trustmarquesolutions.com/news/system-center-2012-licensing-changes-webinar/


*Usual disclaimer: While I work for Trustmarque Solutions, and this knowledge cast is presented for them by myself, this blog is my personal blog and the writings and opinions contained within this blog are my personal opinions and are not reflective of the thoughts or intentions of my employer*

Microsoft Private Cloud, System Center 2012 and License Changes

http://www.microsoft.com/business/events/en-us/PrivateCloudExec

Today Microsoft announced a change in the licensing for System Center.
The multiple SKUs and versions have been greatly simplified down to just 2 (yes that's just TWO!!) offerings.

That's a big change from currently the four different licensing schemes, Datacenter, Enterprise, Single Enterprise, and Single Standard.

The new license types are:
System Center Standard - Manage a physical server, or very lightly virtualised (2 VM's)
System Center Datacenter - Manage unlimited VM's on a physical host

Both the System Center license types contains the following products:

• Configuration Manager
• Service Manager
• Virtual Machine Manager
• Operations Manager
• Data Protection Manager
• Orchestrator
• App Controller
• Endpoint Protection 

So no more individual license for each product, it's a suite license only.

Another couple of major changes....
Licences are now only needed for endpoints being managed, no management servers or SQL licensing. (Yep, you heard it right, SQL licenses for the SC Management Servers is now included in the new licenses)

Both types (Std & DataCenter) are both processor based Licenses, but covers up to two processors per license.

There is also a transition model from the old licensing model to the new.

If you have Software Assurance coverage on your current System Center licenses at the time of System Center 2012 General Availability, you will receive the following System Center 2012 Server ML grants at the ratios listed below:

That covers off licensing Server Operating Systems, however for the Configuration Manager and Service Manager parts of System Center for example, you still require Client Management Licenses for non-server OSE's

Microsoft also have a useful interactive site online that can provide some common scenario questions about System Center 2012 licensing:
http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/about-licensing/SystemCenter2012.aspx

Just to pre-empt the most likely couple of questions likely to get asked around this:

Q) Are there separate offerings without SQL Server Technology?
A) No. All System Center 2012 products include the right to run a runtime version of SQL Server Technology to support System Center so there are no longer separate offerings.

Q) Do I need to purchase separate Management Server Licenses to run Management Server software?
A) No. With System Center 2012, the right to run Management Server software is included with the Server MLs and Client MLs.

Further information:
System Center 2012 Licensing Datasheet

System Center 2012 Licensing FAQ

Operations Manager 2007 R2 (SCOM) Version Numbers

Just a quick post to help me remember what release numbers relate to which cumulative update version:

Version (numeric)	Version (name)
6.1.7221.0	RTM
6.1.7221.13	RTM with CU1 Applied
6.1.7221.15	RTM with CU2 Applied
6.1.7221.49	RTM with CU3 Applied
6.1.7221.61	RTM with CU4 Applied
6.1.7221.81	RTM with CU5 Applied
6.1.7221.99	RTM with CU6 Applied
6.1.7221.110	RTM with CU7 Applied

System Center 2012 Wave

I thought I'd post a quick one on how the System Center 2012 stack is starting to line up and some bits to note for testing and in preparation for implementations.

At present we have the following table that shows the parts of the System Center stack available and their current release stage:

Configuration Manager	Release Candidate 1
Operations Manager	Release Candidate 1
Service Manager	Beta 1
Virtual Machine Manager	Release Candidate 1
Data Protection Manager	Beta 1
Orchestrator	Release Candidate 1
App Controller	Beta 1

All of the System Center solutions are undergoing a branding change.
If you haven't noticed, the branding has now changed to:
"System Center 2012 Product Name"

So this makes it:

• System Center 2012 Configuration Manager
• System Center 2012 Operations Manager
• System Center 2012 Service Manager
• etc etc etc....

A small change I'm sure you'll agree, but important in the long run as we start to see really tight integration between all the solutions, and the development and release schedules of all the parts of the System Center align up.
(Hopefully we'll also see the Start Menu program groups be consolidated together unlike the random scatterings it is at present)

SQL Collations between the solutions are also drawing together with the need for the following collations per solution:

Configuration Manager	SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS
Operations Manager	SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS
Service Manager	See: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh495583.aspx
Virtual Machine Manager	SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS
Data Protection Manager	Unsure - Doesn't seem to specify
Orchestrator	SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS
App Controller	SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS

Anyone else see the running theme here?
SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS seems now to be the de-facto SQL Collation for the System Center 2012 wave.

You can also expect SQL 2008 R2 to be the prefered SQL version, 2008 may be supported for some of them, but 2005 is definitely a no go.

Operations Manager 2012 Release Candidate Released

Not a day after I was demoing SCOM 2012 Beta, do Microsoft go and release the RC!

You can find the download here:
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=27974

Couple of things of note from the Release Notes:

Install hotfix before installing the Operations console
Before you install the Operations console, install the hotfix from article 976898 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=194637) in the Microsoft Knowledge Base. You have to contact Microsoft Customer Support Services to request the hotfix download. This hotfix helps prevent performance problems with the Operations console. After you install the hotfix, you must restart the computer.

This hotfix might not be required for all servers. The Operations console prerequisite checker checks for this prerequisite and alerts the user if it is not there. The hotfix has to be installed if the prerequisite checker finds that the hotfix is missing.

Upgrading from System Center 2012 – Operations Manager Beta to Release Candidate is not supported for installations upgraded from System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2. You can upgrade from System Center 2012 – Operations Manager Beta to Release Candidate but only if the Beta installation was a new installation. You cannot perform the upgrade if the Beta installation was upgraded from System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2.

There is a ton of information in the release notes, so please read thoroughly before installing to know what to expect.